Charles W. Calomiris is UATX’s Director of the Center for Politics, Economics, and History. Prior to joining UATX, Calomiris served as the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and a Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Calomiris is a member of the Financial Economists Roundtable and the Shadow Open Market Committee. Calomiris served as Chief Economist and Senior Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and has been a visiting scholar or consultant to many central banks and regulatory agencies. Calomiris is the author of many books, including Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit (with Stephen Haber), Reforming Financial Regulation After Dodd-Frank, and two edited volumes: Rules for the Lender of Last Resort and Assessing Banking Regulation During the Obama Era. He is currently working on a book entitled Useless History and the Future of Banking.
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Episode 323
Charles W. Calomiris
How the US Government Will Force Banks to Fund the Deficit | Charles Calomiris
Charles W. Calomiris is UATX’s Director of the Center for Politics, Economics, and History. Prior to joining UATX, Calomiris served as the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and a Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Calomiris is a member of the Financial Economists Roundtable and the Shadow Open Market Committee. Calomiris served as Chief Economist and Senior Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and has been a visiting scholar or consultant to many central banks and regulatory agencies. Calomiris is the author of many books, including Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit (with Stephen Haber), Reforming Financial Regulation After Dodd-Frank, and two edited volumes: Rules for the Lender of Last Resort and Assessing Banking Regulation During the Obama Era. He is currently working on a book entitled Useless History and the Future of Banking.
In Episode 324 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with the former Chief Economist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Director of the Center for Politics, Economics, and History at the University of Texas at Austin, Charles Calomiris about his recently published paper “Fiscal Dominance and the Return of Zero-Interest Bank Reserve Requirements.”
In the paper, Dr. Calomiris considers the possibility that the United States government will enact new and more onerous forms of financial repression, including commandeering the US banking system to fund unsustainably high debt and deficit payments that would otherwise lead to a sovereign debt crisis.
In the first hour, Calomiris and Kofinas discuss the history of US bank policy and the unique characteristics of the American political economy that inform how the nation responds to political crises and the populist temptation to resolve them through the US banking system.
The second hour is devoted to a discussion about when and how such measures will be taken to resolve an impending fiscal debt crisis that professor Calomiris believes is inevitable. They discuss what the signposts for such an impending crisis could be, the tradeoffs that an economy operating under the conditions of fiscal dominance would have to make, how such a period of fiscal dominance could end (i.e., either through a prolonged period of double-digit inflation or a full-blown debt crisis), and what role fintech, crypto, and other forms of decentralized finance will play in such an economy given the government’s need to fund itself without losing complete control over inflation.
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Charles W. Calomiris is UATX’s Director of the Center for Politics, Economics, and History. Prior to joining UATX, Calomiris served as the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and a Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Calomiris is a member of the Financial Economists Roundtable and the Shadow Open Market Committee. Calomiris served as Chief Economist and Senior Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and has been a visiting scholar or consultant to many central banks and regulatory agencies. Calomiris is the author of many books, including Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit (with Stephen Haber), Reforming Financial Regulation After Dodd-Frank, and two edited volumes: Rules for the Lender of Last Resort and Assessing Banking Regulation During the Obama Era. He is currently working on a book entitled Useless History and the Future of Banking.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
